NUMERICAL PARAMETERS FOR VIEW ORIENTATION

[Anonymous]

NUMERICAL PARAMETERS FOR VIEW ORIENTATION     

     As a technical illustrator, having the ability to specifiy Views with numerically defined parameters is a critical function that is missing from Fusion 360.

     For example, I may set a relatively arbitrary-but-important View and even estabilsh it as a "Named View".

     And then for the purposes of the document, I need to establish the exact same View, but from exactly 180 degrees on the other side, or exactly 90 degrees to one side or another.

     The numerical control of the Views is critical for precision and especially for repeatability, especially between models. I might need the same exact View (or views) of a mating part in another model.

     This would consist of being able to set angles for X, Y, and Z for a Viewing Vector, as well as for a Zoom setting.  Ideally there would also be options for "FLIP OPPOSITE", and "FLIP 90 DEGREES".

     Having to "fudge" and "eyeball" the orientation of the Views is really, REALLY unfortunate and it very much misses the whole point of having such a powerful 3D visualization tool.

    Having numerical control of the Views would be a game changer.

[jhackney1972]

I know it is no where near what you are proposing but have you played around with the Viewports option.  If you have setup numerous names views, you can assign them at random to the viewports and possibly get a little closer to what you are envisioning.

[davebYYPCU]

You can do that, with the Look At Tool.

Requires an Object in the modelling window set up for the purpose.

Might help....

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

Thanks for the note.

And you're right.  The Viewports don't serve because they're pre-defined.  Along this vein, I would need to be able to define a custom viewport and do it numerically.

RB

[Anonymous]

I'm note sure of any sort of "Look At" tool.  There is the "Look At" command that allows you to look directly at a sketch plane.  And what I think you mean by an "object in the modeling window set up for that purpose", is that one has to establish a meaningful Sketch Plane in the window so that one can "look at" that plane.

If I'm missing something, I'm glad for any further or clarifying information.

RB

[davebYYPCU]

The look at command in the sketch palette is part of it.

the Look At (Tool) I was referring to is on the bottom menu of the interface.

I rarely need it, but I think it will need a selection of a Planar object.

360 face extruded polygon for example.

Might help.....

[jhackney1972]

I think @davebYYPCU has a great idea with the Look At command.  You can create a "View Orientation Component" and place it into any assembly.  If you model using Standard View practice, the view orientation Component will come in at the same orientation to the assembly in any model.  You can then use it to assign views using the Look At command.  The view orientation component can be any number of standard angle view faces, mine was eight sided.  Screencast will explain its use.

[Anonymous]

This is all excellent help.

Here is the challenge then:

The viewing vector I'm interested in is rarely perpendicular to any orthogonal plane (or a 45 of an orthogonal plane) of the current model.  And there is no plane in the model that is perpendicular to the view I need.  The viewing vector is almost always rotated some unknown angle in X and Y, and it's above or below the horizon (so an unknown angle in Z).

The question becomes, is there a way to spin the view cube to some random orientation and then create a sketch plane perpendicular to the resulting viewing vector (or said another way, parallel to the computer screen)?

I don't see a way to do that.  If it's possible, then all else becomes super easy.

I can build a "view orientation object" based on that new strangely-oriented sketch plane and use your suggestion of making it a component that can also go to other model files.

Any ideas on how to generate a Sketch Plane perpendicular to an arbitrary view orientation?

Many thanks,

RossCadGuy

[davebYYPCU]

Well sort of, @jhackney1972 

I had a Mesh Sphere in mind, originally but we can't extract the 3 points from my testing.

Plane on a Path will always be perpendicular to the path.

Construct the path.

Might help....

[rinoboy]

I save a separate copy of the file, just for rendering. I can then rotate the model numerically with the move tool, relative to the standard “Front” view. I don’t have to worry about messing up the file since it’s a copy that I’m going to toss out when I’m done. Not the best solution, but it does what I need. I hope that helps!

P.S. It sometimes helps to make the entire model a “Rigid Group” before rotating the model, keeps things from going all wonky.